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The GFR team 2023 L-R, by row: Beverly Crandon, Anya Spethmann, Nabilah Rawji, Olivia Siu, Aryn Pepper, Christopher Wilton, Lindsay Groves, Megha Jandhyla, Jacky Blisson MW, Richard Snyder, Heather Heagney, Robert Geringer-Jones, Jordan St. John, Robin LeBlanc, Nicholas Pashley, Lorette C. Luzajic, Christopher Sealy (not pictured), and Mariko Tajiri (not pictured).
Good Food Revolution is Canada’s good food and wine news site.
Based in Toronto, GFR is published by Gingerz Consulting with a mandate to educate the public about artisanal food, wine, beer and spirits.
Good Food Revolution is supported financially by a community of sponsors called “Good Food Fighters‘” businesses and organisations that support the enjoyment of good food and wine and the pleasures of the table, excellence in the hospitality industry, accountability in the food system, and the right of all people to have access to good, healthy food.
Good Food Revolution is produced and edited weekly by Jamie Drummond and the GFR team. To find out more, contact us directly by clicking here.
Founding Editors
JAMIE DRUMMOND – To read more by him click here
Edinburgh-born/Ontario-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, educator, and dad, Jamie Drummond is the Director/Editor of Good Food Revolution/Gingerz Consulting. He likes cooking, crossbows, acid house, and lighter wine styles. Contact him here.
MALCOLM JOLLEY – To read more by him click here
Malcolm Jolley is a founder and Editor-at-large of Good Food Revolution. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
Contributors
JACKY BLISSON MW – To read more by her click here
Jacky Blisson MW is an independent wine educator, writer, and consultant with over two decades experience in all facets of the global wine trade. She is the first Master of Wine in Québec and one of only ten across Canada.
ARYN PEPPER – To read more by her click here.
Aryn Pepper is a Ontario/Québécois-raised WSET certified sommelier, educator, writer, and monthly contributor to Good Food Revolution through her esoteric column ‘Sedimental Value’. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, she has travelled from Prince Edward County, the United Kingdom, Southern France, and Germany to learn about winemaking techniques both natural and conventional (though, prefers the former). Dedicated to breaking the chain of gatekeeping in the wine industry, Aryn writes and works towards an inclusive future for viniculture. When not pouring juice in everybody’s glass, she can be found cooking, gaming, traveling, or in the tub. She is currently the wine director and educator at Split Tree in Ottawa
ANYA SPETHMANN – To read more by her click here
Anya Spethmann: An academic advising fluke in university led Anya Spethmann to take introduction to œnologie and viticulture instead of organizational behaviour and she hasn’t looked back since.
CHRISTOPHER WILTON – To read more by him click here
Christopher Wilton lives in Peterborough and sells for the The Living Vine. He’s passionate about wine education and teaches food and beverage pairing at Durham College while running his own side hustle, Wilton Wine Consulting. He’s lightly-certified and fully turned on.
HEATHER HEAGNEY – To read more by her click here
Ottawa-based writer Heather Heagney is a lover of vegetables, oysters, and soul-satisfying carbs. She’ll join you for any beverage as long as it’s not rum, and she has never said no to a pizza (unless it had meat on it — she’s one of those pesky pescatarians). Heather has spent an equal number of years in Toronto and Ottawa, having worked in the restaurant industry in both cities. From 2009-2018, her food writing could be found on her former blog, After the Harvest, from which she published a coffee table book (After the Harvest: Eat, Drink, Connect) and hosted food and wine-inspired events. She also wrote about chefs, cocktails, and food entrepreneurs for Ottawa-based Herd Magazine. IG: @heatherheagney Twitter: @heatherheagney
MEGHA JANDHYLA – To read more by her click here
Megha Jandhyala has a Doctorate in law and is WSET 3 certified. She is passionate about wines from all over the world, but she is especially interested in emerging wine regions like Valle de Guadalupe and Coahuila in Mexico, and Nashik in India. She also explores the relationship between wine and food in her writing, with a focus on cuisine from the Indian subcontinent. She hopes to highlight the ways in which wine and different expressions of South Asian regional cuisine can enhance one another, sparking new conversations in the process.
MARIKO TAJIRI – To read more by her click here
Mariko Tajiri is a f&b professional (professional eater and drinker), always thinking about what to drink and eat. Can often be found slurping sake, wine, coffee and water whilst dreaming up imaginary potato chip flavour combinations. National Brand Manager for That’s Life, an Asian owned and operated wine and sake agency representing beautiful producers from around the world. Creator of Hakko Gakko, school of fermentation and a WSET certified sake educator.
NABILAH RAWJI – To read more by her click here
Nabilah Rawji is an Advanced Sommelier based in Toronto and a co-founder of Vinequity. She is a Barolo junkie, floral fanatic, and all around nerd.
DICK SNYDER – To read more by him click here
An aspiring jazz guitarist, Dick Snyder spends his time between practice sessions with such activities as wine tasting and judging and writing for publications such as LCBO Food & Drink, Zoomer and The Toronto Star. He has BFAa in jazz and journalism and a WSET Level IV diploma. He is the wine and drinks editor for Canada’s 100 Best. A semi-strict grammarian, he maintains that “varietal” is an adjective.
BEVERLY CRANDON – To read more by her click here
Beverly Crandon is a current CMS certified sommelier candidate, founder of W.H., a private client wine consulting and events service, and co-founder of Vinequity.
Beverly has been able to lend her hand both as a consultant and a direct leadership employee in various organizations, from Fortune 500s to start-ups looking to generate mind share, revenues, and a recurring member-base, in their area of discipline. She combines her wine education, love of wine and work experience, to broaden wine appreciation and advancement in those not deemed the ‘traditional’ wine consumer or professional.
Her overarching motto: wine should be inclusive and through that approachable. No one should be denied the pleasures of vino!
ROBIN LEBLANC – To read more by her click here
Robin LeBlanc is an award-winning beer columnist, author, and podcaster with over a decade of experience in writing about the ins and outs of the beer world. In addition to her regular contributions in multiple publications, she currently works as a beer columnist for Metroland Media and is the co-host of the Ontario Craft Beer Guide The Podcast. She lives in Toronto.
JORDAN ST. JOHN – To read more by him click here
Jordan St.John has been writing about craft beer for over a decade, with five books, myriad articles, and the Ontario Craft Beer Guide: The Podcast amongst his credentials. He is the head of the Beer Certificate at George Brown College in Toronto. Mostly, when people ask him to describe his job he says “Local Beer Man.”
ROBERT GERINGER-JONES – To read more by him click here
Toronto-born Robert Geringer Jones spends his time homebrewing beer and mead, crafting cocktails, and mostly preparing for his CAPS exam this fall. Robert developed his interest in the hospitality industry in 2016 working as a summer line cook while studying for his Industrial Psychology degree at the University of Waterloo, and since graduating in 2019 has moved to a full time position in front of house, working his way up from the bottom towards a career in wine beer and spirits.
OLIVIA SIU – To read more by her click here
Olivia is a WSET Diploma candidate with over a decade of digital design and marketing experience. After growing a start-up into a multi-million dollar business, she launched her wine career working for a leading Okanagan winery, and then with two leading Canadian wine and spirits distributors, before she co-founded Vinequity and joined Nicholas Pearce Wines in Toronto.
NICHOLAS PASHLEY – To read more by him click here
Nicholas Pashley is a Toronto writer about, among other things, beer. He is the author of Notes on a Beermat: Drinking and Why It’s Necessary and Cheers: An Intemperate History of Beer in Canada. He was born in England, 14.6 miles from the Harveys Brewery in Sussex. He consumed his first public beer on October 1, 1965, at the Embassy Tavern in Toronto. John Diefenbaker was implicated.
CHRISTOPHER SEALY – To read more by him click here
Christopher Sealy is the Wine Director for the alo food group. He oversees 3 restaurant wine programs. Christopher has been with the group since late 2015 when alo, the flagship restaurant, began to garner national and international attention as Canada’s premier fine dining tasting-menu-only and wine pairing restaurant. Voted #1 Sommelier by Canada’s 100 Best in 2019. Alo restaurant sits at #90 on the San Pellegrino World Top 50 Restaurants. Now with a strong sommelier team working with him, Christopher spends part of his time travelling. He has recently began programming his “Arc of Flavours’”concept aimed at education and exposure to wine for one and for all. Check out his blog right here.
PATRICIA NOONAN – To read more by her click here
Patricia Noonan has been writing about food, drinks, restaurants, spirits and sometimes travel and wine for more than 20 years. Former spirits critic for Wine Access and Vintage Assessments, 20 year hospitality educator, WSET with distinction but most importantly, a bon vivant at heart.Follow her at @lovetoeatndrink
LINDSAY GROVES – To read more by her click here
Lindsay is a Toronto-based Sommelier and Master of Wine student, who firmly believes hating Chardonnay and screwcaps is nonsense.
DIANA MCNALLY
Diana McNally is an educator and community worker developing food security and alternative economic initiatives in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale. She believes that access to healthy, affordable food is a fundamental right for everyone.
LORETTE C. LUZAJIC – To read more by her click here
Lorette C. Luzajic is an artist, writer, educator, and editor who is passionate about good food and wine. She is the founder and editor of The Ekphrastic Review, a journal of literature inspired by visual art. Her own essays, flash fiction, and poetry are widely published. Her most recent books, Pretty Time Machine, and Winter in June, are collections of prose poetry and small fictions. She wrote for Good Food Revolution about Wine and Art for many years. As a mixed media artist, she won first place in a painting competition sponsored by E11even Restaurant and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Her art has also been featured in an ad campaign, on film sets, in museums and galleries, restaurants and nightclubs, hotels and banks, and collected from Peru to Saudi Arabia, in more than 30 countries so far. Having grown up on a farm before moving to the city, Lorette loves cooking with fresh produce. She also loves seafood, Mexican cuisine, the full gamut of international spices, and all wine, especially complicated reds. Visit her at www.mixedupmedia.ca.
DEAN TUDOR
Dean Tudor is a Ryerson University Journalism Professor Emeritus, The Treasurer of The Wine Writers’ Circle of Canada and creator of Canada’s award-winning wine satire site at fauxvoixvincuisine.blogspot.com. Visit Dean’s websites at deantudor.com and gothicepicures.blogspot.com. His motto: “Look it up and you’ll remember it; screw it up and you’ll never forget it.”